Thread: Oil in rear Hub

Originally Posted by patclan

Yesterday I changed my rear discs and pads on my 2009 defender, when I removed the axle flange and the hub nut on the left hand side oil came out, the bearings looked like they were oil lubed, when I did the right hand side it was grease, I greased them both up before refitting as that was all I was prepared for.

Is it possible to have a leak from the dif and the oil wash out the grease on one side? The shafts looked in good condition they were replaced a couple of year ago under warranty but I am wondering if they may have screwed something up to cause a leak.

I have owned it from new so I know that I have not converted them to oil lubed.

Also there is a bit of movement, the wheels will rotate about 1 inch, the play seems to come from the diff end, it is noticeable with the hand brake on you can rock the car a fair bit, not to good when you are sleeping on the roof!! But doe snot really bother me that much as long as it is not an issue.

Cheers
Pat

Sounds like the oil seal is failing on that side - new ones are cheap and easy to install. Probably worth doing the oil hub conversion while you're at it. I did mine and (to date) it seems to be a good approach. You'll need to get aftermarket drive flanged when you do this - it'll also be a good opportunity to assess where your lash is coming from.

FWIW, I've replaced all my drive shafts, flanges, CVs and diff centres with aftermarket/HD parts now as well as doing oil conversions front and rear - this has greatly reduced overall drive train lash and seems to have reduced wear as well.

May I suggest you check that your diff breather is not blocked? Oil being forced past the seal is a common symptom. The same thing happened on my 130 because Landrover, in their wisdom, puts the top of the breather in a 130 hcpu in the closest gap between tub and cab where it can easily be crimped closed! Differential heats up, oil seal fails. I do recommend changing to maxi drive axles, drive flanges and hence oil fed bearings.

Good point - check the simple things first!